Michael Saward (1932–2015)

I think this book is suitable as an introduction to the theory of democracy. The author takes a broad approach, discussing justification, equality, institutions and even the suitable size of democratic units. The arguments are fairly simple and straightforward and lack the finegrained detail which makes most books in political theory harder to swallow. At times the author's standpoint seems sketchy and vulnerable to easy objections, but he partly makes up for it with his a wide scope.

The most idiosyncratic part is the author's defence of direct democracy. He first seems to sneak the subject in through the back door, but in later chapters he discusses it explicitly. I think he should have expanded much further on this subject to really make a valid case for direct democracy in modern society. His ideas would require more elaboration before they could be understood and challenged. The same can be said about the argument pertaining to the most suitable political units for democracy, a subject closely related to the justification of direct democracy. It isn't given a sufficiently detailed treatment in this book to be of much value.

This book didn't quite earn itself a place among my favorite books in democratic theory. I enjoyed some parts of it, but the author often cut his analysis short just when it was about to get interesting.… (altro)